Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus for molding a three-dimensional object with a molding apparatus, a control method therefor, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
Molding apparatuses for molding three-dimensional objects (solid objects) based on model data are generally referred to as three-dimensional (3D) printers, and recent years have seen a rapid increase in the use of the 3D printers. Techniques related to solid structures are also referred to as Additive Manufacturing. Meanwhile, two-dimensional (2D) printers are printing apparatuses for performing planar printing on paper (sheets).
Although 3D printers themselves have been previously known, those prior 3D printers had been used only in limited industries such as manufacturing industries since those 3D printers are large and require spaces, are difficult to handle, and cost high. However, with the diversifying molding methods and materials, a variety of 3D printers are commercially available nowadays, ranging from inexpensive 3D printers usable by general consumers to high performance business-use 3D printers for companies in manufacturing industries and other diverse industries.
Examples of molding methods employed by 3D printers include Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Stereo Lithography (STL), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), and an ink-jet method. Molding materials corresponding to these molding methods are used to mold objects.
In this regard, in the field of 2D printers such as office-use printers, as a function of a printer driver, with which printing-related settings are made, a user interface (UI) screen for simplified settings that enables input of a part of setting items among all of setting items may be provided. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-117915 discusses a printer driver that provides, when a user specifies a purpose of printing, a UI screen that reflects some of setting items and specific setting values corresponding to the purpose of printing. For example, purposes of printing include normal printing, document printing, saving printing, and photographic printing, and the printer driver manages setting items and setting values for each purpose of printing.
Features of finishing such as the strength of a three-dimensional object molded by a 3D printer depend on molding settings specified with respect to a molding apparatus when molding is to be performed. It is thought to be difficult for a user who is unfamiliar with a 3D printer to specify various molding-related settings in consideration of such features as the strength of a molding target object via existing setting screens of molding control software for generating molding data. Further, in molding by using 3D printers, materials differ depending on the type of a molding material to be used for molding, and molding methods differ depending on the type of a molding material and the model of a molding apparatus. Thus, features of a resultant molded object will be completely different. In other words, it is necessary to select a suitable molding material, a suitable molding apparatus, and a suitable molding method in consideration of such features as the strength of an object desired to be molded. However, it is difficult for a user who is unfamiliar with 3D printers to select a suitable molding material, a suitable molding apparatus, and a suitable molding method.
The aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-117915 neither considers 3D printers nor discusses techniques for prompting a user to select a 3D printer suitable for features of an object desired to be molded and prompting a user to make suitable settings to be used for molding, such as molding materials, molding methods, and molding settings.